Assistant Harris County District Attorney Natalie Tise said Aviles-Barroso and two other men were cocaine dealers who worked together to break in to the home of a couple who were part of the same drug ring.

Midnight invasion

She told jurors that Aviles-Barroso and Obel Cruz-Garcia, 45, were wearing ski masks when they broke in to the family's south Houston apartment around midnight on Sept. 30, 1992.

After tying up the couple and ransacking the home for money and drugs, prosecutors said Cruz-Garcia raped the boy's mother and kidnapped the boy because he saw Cruz-Garcia's face.

Cruz-Garcia was sentenced to death in July after being convicted of capital murder. He had been in jail in Puerto Rico when DNA from the 15-year-old rape kit tied him to the case in 2007.

Implicated in case

The third man, who drove the car during the home invasion and kidnapping, was in federal prison when authorities reopened the case in 2007. He implicated Aviles-Barroso, who had moved to Georgia.

When the woman who was assaulted 22 years ago heard a tape of Aviles-Barroso's interview with authorities, she said it was her attacker.

"She said, 'That's him; I will never forget that voice,' " Tise told jurors. The woman is expected to testify this week against Aviles-Barroso.

Defense lawyers for Aviles-Barroso said there was no evidence he was involved in an attack except the testimony of admitted drug dealers.

"This case is about who was actually there, that part they played and the veracity of what they're saying," attorney Charles Brown said.

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